Sipping Pisco in Peru
Peru’s native spirit, pisco, is the latest darling among mixologists in many parts of the world, though it is Lima’s cocktail scene that is at the forefront.
Having lived on and off in Lima since Peru’s culinary boom began, I’ve watched as the level of sophistication of pisco drinking has grown exponentially. Both Peru and Chile lay claim to the grape based spirit, a type of brandy, but Peru’s small artisanal producers, where strictly enforced appellation of origin guidelines ban diluting and additives to ensure quality, are usually preferred by bartenders over Chile’s (mostly) mass produced varieties. Top bars in Lima are now featuring dozens of ultra premium types of pisco for drinking straight alongside long lists of original cocktails macerating pisco with Amazonian fruits and house made syrups.
While the pisco sour, Peru’s national cocktail, will likely be your first encounter with the spirit, take a tour of Lima’s top nightspots and you’ll quickly discover it won’t be your only encounter.
Start your Lima pisco tour with a trip down memory lane at Bar Maury in the center’s Hotel Maury. It was here at the old wooden bar that Californian immigrant Victor Morris, or one of his bartenders, conceived the recipe for the pisco sour, a pisco version of the whiskey sour, which soon took the city and the country by storm. Lima’s cocktail culture has grown up and shifted away from the faded downtown districts once favored by the upper crust to the ritzier coastal burbs like Miraflores and Barranco.
At Huaringas, on the second floor of an old mansion above the restaurant Brujas de Cachiche, the pisco sour has taken on a new life. They’ll still serve you up a classic, though you have choices here. The pisco sour isn’t just a tangy lime, but can be served maracuya (passionfruit), coca, ginger, chicha morada (purple corn), or even a spicy Aji Amarillo (Peruvian yellow pepper).
Molecular mixology is no stranger to the cocktails in Lima’s financial district at Quimera, where the classic cocktail the chilcano gets a facelift with house made ginger syrup and a crystallized ginger garnish. Another take on the chilcano infuses the rocoto pepper.
Carving out a new scene is the In Situ bar and Lobby Lounge at the new Westin hotel, the tallest and most futuristic building in the country. Browse through the pisco cellar, which is 2,000 bottles deep, for a selection of single grape pisco puros from Ica to Tacna to sip upon neat among a crowd of pretty people.
At the bar at Malabar, widely considered the best restaurant in Peru, and the soon to open Amazonian cocktail and small plates spot Amaz, chef Pedro Miguel Schiaffino carries his experimentations of obscure Andean and Amazonian ingredients into the bar. One recipe that has earned some attention is the original version of Pisco Punch, a long lost preparation that dates to gold rush era San Francisco.
Over in Lima’s bohemian hood, Barranco, at Ayahuasca, a restored Republican era mansion turned art filled cocktail den, pisco gets the jungle treatment. While you won’t find the hallucinogenic drink the bar is named after, you will find pisco mixed with exotic fruits like carambola, camu camu, aguaymanto, granadilla, and tumbo.
Image: Quimera
